LISTED food manufacturer Monde Nissin Corp. is shifting its focus toward expanding its alternative meat business after reporting improved margins and launching a nutrition campaign.
鈥淭he campaign that鈥檚 underway in Q4 (fourth quarter) focuses on our frozen ingredients range with the biggest frozen campaign that we鈥檝e seen in three or four years,鈥 Quorn Foods Chief Financial Officer Nicholas Cooper said in a virtual briefing late Wednesday.
鈥淚t鈥檚 looking to bring new consumers back into the core part of our frozen ingredients range, which has been reformulated to be free from artificial ingredients and is running under the 鈥楴othing to Hide鈥 banner.鈥
Earlier this year, Quorn unveiled its multi-million-pound campaign aimed at positioning its products as high-protein and additive-free, a move expected to lessen consumer skepticism over highly processed food.
鈥淔or meat alternative products, we aim to continue to slow down our sales decline through our 鈥楴othing to Hide鈥 campaign for our frozen ingredients, which we have just launched,鈥 Monde Nissin Chief Executive Officer Henry Soesanto said.
鈥淥ur Quorn frozen ingredient SKUs (stock keeping units) are our key volume SKUs, and therefore, are critical to finally arrest the volume decline.鈥
Quorn Foods鈥 third-quarter gross profit jumped by 29.3% to P904 million. It likewise grew by 15.2% to P2.5 billion in the first nine months.
Revenues of the meat alternative business declined by 1.1% in the third quarter and 3.9% as of end-September.
鈥淲hile this compares very favorably with the high single-digit volume decline that we experienced in the past, we believe that we cannot cost save our way to glory,鈥 Monde Nissin Chief Financial Officer Jesse C. Teo said.
鈥淓ventually, we need to be able to address the volume decline to be able to continue the very favorable gross margin accretion path that we are already seeing.鈥
Quorn Foods鈥 core earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) stood at P255 million in the third quarter.
鈥淲hile category conditions remain challenging, the improvement in EBITDA demonstrates that our initiatives are making steady progress,鈥 Mr. Soesanto said in a stock exchange disclosure on Wednesday.
Monde Nissin Corp. acquired Quorn, a meat alternatives brand in the United Kingdom, in 2015.
The snack maker posted a 13% increase in its third-quarter net income to P2.3 billion amid foreign exchange gains and steady growth in its core branded food business.
Some of Monde Nissin鈥檚 brands include Lucky Me! noodles, SkyFlakes crackers, Fita crackers, Dutch Mill drinks, and Monde baked goods.
At the local bourse on Thursday, Monde Nissin shares fell by 2.54% or 16 centavos to close at P6.14 apiece. 鈥 Beatriz Marie D. Cruz
